IN BRIEF (Page 12)

China

'No objection' to normal passing

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Tuesday that China has no objection to normal visit passing through the South China Sea, but adding that "it will be a different matter if the trip has different intentions". Reports had said Tokyo plans to dispatch its largest warship, Izumo helicopter carrier, on a three-month tour through the South China Sea beginning in May, in its biggest show of naval force in the region since World War II. "We have not yet heard it from the Japanese authorities," she said in Beijing, adding that related countries' normal exchanges should facilitate regional peace and stability.